ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The revitalized Kurdish Textile and Cultural Museum, reopened in the centuries old citadel of Erbil, is seen both as a preserver of Kurdish heritage and an important attraction for tourists visiting the Arab Tourism Capital of 2014.
“Here the Kurdish culture is kept from oblivion,” Erbil mayor Nihad Qoja proudly notes about the museum. “After the Gulf War of 1991 much has been lost, but the museum has succeeded in preserving a part of our culture and presenting it very nicely.”
He is full of praise for Lolan Sipan, a Swedish Kurd who 10 years ago set up a carpet museum in one of the last mansions built in the citadel. The house, constructed in the 1930s and given to him by the Ministry of Culture, was in bad repair, like most of the almost 600 buildings on the 11 hectares of the 8,000-year-old citadel, which is considered the oldest permanently inhabited settlement in history.
Even before the reconstruction of the citadel began, Sipan already had renovated and opened a small museum, filling it with carpets he collected from all four parts of Kurdistan. Soon after, its shop was discovered by tourists as the only place they could buy souvenirs in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Even so, in 2008 he was ordered by the High Council for Erbil Citadel Revitalization (HCECR) to evacuate the museum, to facilitate the ongoing reconstruction in the citadel. Only the support of the many local and foreign officials who had visited and admired the museum could save it.
A long struggle between Sipan and the council had only just started. Last year, it led to a last-minute ban on the opening of a teahouse he had set up in the citadel.
The matter seems to have been settled, as the council is one of the funders of the recent restorations. When buildings around him were restored with Italian, French, Czech and German money, Sipan also found some foreign funding. He started a major reconstruction, with his British architect even adding part of a second floor.
“The museum and the shop have been closed for over two years. I had expected to reopen years ago,” Sipan says on the opening night. “I have lost the pride for what we accomplished because of all the barriers that were put up.”
With heartfelt emotion, he explained the urgency of protecting Kurdish weaving traditions. “Erbil was the cosmopolitan capital of nomadic tribes and the center of weaving, and this goes back thousands of years, as we can see from the patterns in the carpets,” he explains.
For centuries, nomadic tribes would stay in the Erbil plains in the winter and on the meadows of the high mountains on the Iraq-Iran border during the summer. But Saddam Hussein’s “Anfal” campaign, in which 180,000 Kurds were killed and thousands of villages destroyed, changed everything, says Sipan. “Tribes were relocated, and in the eighties the weaving tradition died.”
With American funding, he set up a weaving project, first in the museum and later elsewhere in the citadel, where the last surviving weaving women taught young girls their trade. The young women are now using these skills to acquire an income. “But because of the closure of the museum we had zero sales,” Sipan complains.
German Consul General Alfred Simms-Protz predicts that Sipan’s problems with the council should be over now. “After officials visit the museum, nobody will want to close it anymore. This is something to be proud of, and Sipan is the best man for the job.”
Germany paid a third of the $300,000 needed for the renovation, and Simms-Protz states that he is very happy with what has been done with this “relatively moderate sum.” Using words like “wonderful” and “fantastic,” he praises the new displays. “Even the labeling is done well and in correct English.”
The museum was upgraded by adding samples of traditional Kurdish costumes, tools, pots and other objects of daily life, and even some long-play records of Kurdish music. The name was therefore changed to the Textile and Cultural Museum. The banned teahouse has moved here, and will be open daily.
The consul calls all this a major attraction.
“First for the locals to see what their ancestors did, and secondly for the tourists. We will be bringing all our guests here.”
For the moment the museum will remain the main attraction of the citadel, as most of the streets have long been closed because of the danger of buildings collapsing, explains Qoja, the Erbil mayor. He agrees that this is an unwelcome feature during the Arab Tourism Year.
“As a member of the High Council for the citadel, I will try my best to change it soon,” he promises.
